BNP condemns reported BB gold scam

'We will wage a strong movement together with people after forging a national unity to unseat the autocratic regime'

BNP on Tuesday strongly denounced the reported gold scam in the central bank's vault, saying it is another sign of plundering by the government.

"A major newspaper ran a report on a strange incident in Bangladesh Bank's vault where there was 963kg gold. The gold bars have been turned into mixed metals, and the 22 carat gold into 18 carat ones in the vault. This is a very deplorable incident," said BNP leader Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, reports UNB.

Speaking at a discussion, he said massive amounts of money was also stolen from the central bank's reserve earlier.

“These are the signs of plundering the country by an autocratic government. We strongly condemn it.”

Bangladesh Youth Forum arranged the program at the National Press Club on the role of the current Election Commission (EC).

Mosharraf, a BNP standing committee member, said their party now wants to see what steps the government takes against those involved in the incident.

He warned that the government will have to be accountable to people someday if it tries to hush up the gold scam incident like the reserve heist.

The BNP leader said the government is creating a blueprint to hold the next election without the participation of BNP and Khaleda Zia.

He called upon people of all walks of life to get united to foil the government's all evil designs and ensure its fall through a movement.

“We will wage a strong movement together with people after forging a national unity to unseat the autocratic regime.”

Mosharraf said the current Election Commission helped people rigging votes in the recent polls instead of standing beside voters.

“No one believes that this commission can hold a fair and credible election. It will not be able to arrange the national election in a fair manner either,” he added.

Mentioning that realizing their party's demand for holding a credible election under a non-party administration is a big challenge, the BNP leader urged his party colleagues to take proper preparations to wage a strong movement.

“We must put in our best efforts to restore people's voting rights,” he said.